Distilling- coal with hydrogen gas



S. MEREDITH. DISTILLING GOAL WITH HYDROGBN GAS.

Q lLO-ll--c H u I l Patented July 81, 1855.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEicE.

STEPHEN MEREDITH, OF MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA.

DISTILLING COAL WITH HYDROGEN GAS.

Speccation of Letters Patent No. 13,358, dated July 31, 1855.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN MEREDITH, of Meadville, in the county ofCrawford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement: in the Distillation of Cannel or other Bituminous Coal toProduce Benzole, Naphtha, and other Hydrocarbon Fluids for Illuminatingand other Purposes; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which-Figure l, is a front view of my distilling apparatus, and Fig. 2, alongitudinal vertical section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both gures.

It is well known to chemists and others who have experimented in thedestructive distillation of coal, that at different degrees oftemperature products of very different character are produced, gaseous,liquid, and solid. The gaseous products consist of marsh gas, olelantgas, carbureted hydroge'n, and carbonic acid; the liquid productsconsist of bodies closely analogous to petroleum and the solids are cokeand mineral pitch. The relative proportions of the above products varywith the tempera-ture, the lower the temperature employed the less gasand the more liquid produced, and an increased temperature producingmore gas. At the high temperature required to produce good coke there islittle or no liquid produced except tar, while at the low temperaturenecessary to give the best product of liquids theJ coke would bespoiled; and even at that low temperature there would be a large amountof permanent gas made which would be lost.

The object of my invention is to obtain a large product of liquids andalso coke of good quality, and also to work olf a charge of coal morerapidly than can be done by simple distillation at a low heat, and forthis purpose the nature of my invention consists in the admission to theretorts during the distilling operation of a jet of heated hydrogen gas.In this way the liq-` uids are distilled in an atmosphere of hydrogenand thus preserved from igneous decomposition and the hydrogenl at thesame time takes up a portion of the sulfur and ammonia contained in thecoal.

In carrying out my invention I employ a bench of retorts, of the usualkind. A, A, A, in the drawing represent these retorts; B, the furnace;C, the hydraulic main; and D, the pipes leading from the retorts to thehydraulic main.

E, is a pipe entering the oven F, at the rear end and passingcircuitously or in serpentine form through the oven and connectingoutside with a pipe G, which runs over the whole of the retorts and isfurnished with a branch a, to lead to every retort. This pipe conveysthe hydrogen gas to the retort and heats it in its passage through theoven. The retort should be kept at a cherry red heat. The pipe whichconveys the hydrogen should be kept at a similar heat, and thedistillation should continue for about six hours. The hydrogen gas maybe produced by any of the known methods and may be admitted directly tothe pipe E, from the ret-ort in which it is made or from a receiver orgas holder, but I desire it to enter the retorts A, A, A, in a heated'state. Suitable means may be employed to convey the hydrogen aftercondensation has been effected to burn it under the retorts A, A, A, orunder the stills to be employed in the further purification of theliquids, which I re-distil with about o-ne tenth part of their bulk orwith ten (l0) gallons of the milk of lime, to every hundred (100)gallons of the liquids, when they will be sufliciently pure for commonuse.

IV hat I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patentis` The production of naphtha, benzole and other hydrocarbon liquids bythe distillation of cannel or other bituminous coal in an atmosphere ofheated hydrogen gas or in a retort to which a stream of heated hydrogengas is admitted during the distilling process substantially as and forthe purposes herein set fort-h.

STEPHEN MEREDITH.

Vitnesses H. METTUisIs, A. TAYLOR.

